We can't get out of Delhi!

Hello world!
If you are wondering why you havent heard from us in a week...

June 9th, we packed up our bags and left for our city tour as arranged. It was an interesting (?) tour, not much was seen as it was too hot to leave the air conditioned car, the temples wanted all our belongings locked away and the museums wanted all our money. On top of this, we have been told that there were troubles in Amritsar, where we had bought tickets for later that day! We decided not to go, and that it where the phrase "we can't get out of Delhi" came from.
At this point, we had nowhere to live, nowhere to go, and no idea where to head for instead! We then spoke to some travel agents for some ideas and read our Lonely Planet book for inspiration. We decided to heat North, somewhere quiet so we could plan the rest of India as it is not quite as easy as expected! And, its a BIG place!
We settled in Srinagar, Kashmir, in the very North of India. The Lonely Planet describes it as "Indulgent houseboats on placid Dal Lake, famous Mughal gardens, colourfully historic wooden mosques and Rozabal's 'Jesus tomb'".
Perfext, we thought, and booked ourselves a flight for the next morning. Of course, only the best for us princesses, so we booked a delux houseboat too!
Landing at Srinagar airport, we were slightly shocked by the number of soldiers inside and outside the terminal. (Later told the figure of 10 soldiers to every person!)
Little were we to realise what would happen whilst there...
Our driver picked us up from the airport and drove (almost as madly as the do in Delhi) to Dal Lake. Once arriving, we could see what all the fuss was about. The views of the Himalayas, hundreds of houseboats surounding a mirror flat lake with lots of Shikara (a local rowing boat with beds) crossing backwards and forwards. We were taken across the lake and checked into our houseboat, the Star of Kashmir. We found a very old English decorated houseboat as these were first build during English colonial times and during this time, they were not allowed to build on the land. We were shown to our room, brought some Kashmir tea and told to settle in by the manager who promised to come back and see us once he had sorted out a tour for another guest.
Half an hour later, we were taken to another room and the manager attempted to sell us a 420 pound 6 take trek into the Himalayas. We made it clear that we werent able to pay for this and somehow found ourselves agreeing to a 10,000 RS (175 pounds) trip which consisted of 4 single day trips. Fortunately we didn't hand over any money at this time, as later that evening we both began to get a little paranoid about how we were practically stranded on a boat 200m from land and had somehow promised to hand overa weeks budget to do activities that we weren't interested in doing in the first place.
We had also met an Israeli girl who was travelling alone and had recieved the same pushy sales treatment we had. Although she had taken an 27 hour bus ride to get there, she had gotten so upset that she booked to go back again the very next day. Bear in mind, none of our phones were working, we had (we thought) no access to the internet, oh and we were in KASHMIR!
Needless tosay, neither of us slept too wel that night, and locked up our belongings securely.
The next day, we told the manager we didnt want to do the trip, and he demanded we pay the tax on it (22.5% - we got away without paying so no worries there).
We then found out there was internet access and payphones just along the lake, and one of the servants rowed us across. We spent some time searching for cheap flights to get us straight out of there and back to Delhi where we felt safe ("we can't get out of Delhi!")
We then phoned our travel agents Vijay and Sunny and told them we were very unhappy and wanted to leave. Next thing we knew, they had phoned our boat manager and told him everything we had said and he turned up in our internet cafe. Turns out, we had already got two trips included in the the price of our accommodation and we could get a flight our of there for no extra charge on 15th June.
OK, fine, we will grin and bear it, not ideal that we have had a "disaster" within days of getting here, but we will do the tours and spend the rest of the time planning the rest of the trip as we had previously devided.
As time went on, we actually really started to enjoy ourselves. What we originally thought was pushiness was actually friendliness and whilst the owner of the boat was possibly a little crazy, he was a kind man who actually wanted us to enjoy our stay as much as possible. Anything we wanted was brought to us and we had meals included (which were all very nice)
One of our trips was a Shikara ride and we were picked up early morning by Manzoo, our guide and best friend for the day. We were expected to lie back on the beds while poor Manzoo rowed us for 10 hours but we were having none of that. Instead, within half an hour, Kate had picked up the other oar and Sally was able to lie back and get the princess treatment (sound about right?)
We passed many floating gardent, mountains and fellow boated during the day. We visited a small town and mosque and received many strange looks as if we were the first Western tourists in town. We chilled with Manzoo who was very over protective as many people approached us and he eaither shooed them away or told us we must move. As we left the town by boat, children were throwing stones at us, and later that day we found out why...!
We headed to the old city which took some time as the wind was against us, so we all took an oar (even Sally) and helped. We experienced our first meal without cutlery and ate rice and vegetable curry with our hands. It was very nice, if a little unhygenic!
We then visited the honey house and tried samples of honey, from Lotus and Almond, through to Hashish and Opium!
According to "Mrs Honey", Mick Jagger has been to her house and bought honey from her also!
She fel in love with Sally and kept telling her "you are very very beautiful" - this seems to be a recurring theme in India!
We then left (after buying a pot of lotus honey) and visited some floating shops on route home. When arriving, we were informed that a 24 hour curfew had been put out in Srinagar as the army had shot three young boys for throwing stones. Which explains the treatment we got earlier!
The next few days were spent drinking Kashmir tea, reading on top deck and watching the shikara pass by. Our tour of the city was cancelled, which worked out ok due to a servere case of Delhi belly which left Kate in bed for a day or two!
We spent most evenings chilling on top of the boat - to the left we had the green covered foot of the Himalayas, the right, snow covered peaks and bright blue skies. One evening, the sky became totally overcast, turning day into night and we thought we would stay out and watch the storm. It was probably the most fascinating experience yet as we literally heard the thunder as the clouds hit the mountains. We could actually feel the vibrations through the wood of the boat. Not a drop of rain fell on us but we were able to see the most beautiful rainbow appear from the foot of the mountain!
And now we are home, well back in Delhi ("we can't get out of Delhi!")
And best news of all is we have a plan for the rest of the trip! We are staying a night here and then heading for a week or so to Rajasthan!
And so here is where we will leave you!
All our love,
Sally and Katie xxx